This Week... Science meets superstition when the team treat an 8-year-old patient who displays unusual abilities. But is Lou really possessed by a demon or is there a medical explanation?

House Viewing... This episode's patient-of-the-week storyline is more than a little unusual - Lue (Riley Lennon Nice) is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro with respiratory distress. What's more, he's suffering from night terrors - terrifying visions of a demon that throttles him...

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Lou's grandpa Xang (George Cheung) is convinced that Lue is possessed by a demon and is determined that his ancient rituals, rather than medicine, will save the boy. Since House often adheres to a strict format, any variation in the formula - such as this oddball plot - should be applauded, and Lou's arc is played out well by a strong guest cast.

That said, is it not rather dubious to portray Asians as paranoid and deluded, believing in magic and "evil spirits" and rejecting medical science? It's difficult to suppress a groan as Xang tells the sickly Lou, "You have angered our ancestors!"

At first, the episode circumvents these concerns by having Lou's mother Lida (Samantha Cutaran) reject her father's claims - she's an engineer and a rational person. It's a shame then that this character eventually falls prey to superstition too.

Eventually, of course, there's a medical explanation for Lou's ailment, but his family stick to their beliefs regardless. Rather more oddly for a show of this sort, much of the strange behaviour exhibited by Lou - speaking a language he has no knowledge of, even levitating - go unexplained, which at least lends 'Body & Soul' a nice sense of ambiguity.

Meanwhile, House (Hugh Laurie) - who last week came to terms with his true feelings for his Green Card wife Dominika (Karolina Wydra) - is still covering up the fact that he threw away the INS documents granting her citizenship, in order to keep her by his side...

It's a throughly uncompelling storyline and even Wilson seems less willing to tolerate House's nonsense than usual. "Tell her the truth and leave me alone," he barks, no-nonsense.

Unsurprisingly, House disregards his friend's advice and eventually his ploy works, with Dominika falling into his arms. Unfortunately for him, a phone call from the immigration office alerts her to his deception. This all leads to an 'emotional' break-up, but it's difficult to care about this deeply unlikely pairing.

Speaking of unlikely pairings, the non-existent sexual tension between Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Park (Charlyne Yi) is given another go around this week - didn't we already deal with this issue when the pair briefly lived together?

This bizarre story thread is drawn out even longer as Park has a sex dream about Chase and he later responds in kind. Weren't we just last week setting up a romance between Chase and Adams? And wasn't Park involved in romance with the singer from Fall Out Boy?

This muddled storytelling is indicative of the kind of sloppy writing the House team have been indulging in lately, with character arcs remaining frustratingly inconsistent. The fact that the latest Chase / Park nonsense culminates in a fart gag speaks volumes about the storyline's quality.

We've gone this far without mentioning the final scene in 'Body & Soul' - after being dumped by Dominika, House visits Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) for the usual moral support, only to be faced with some shocking news - his old friend has cancer.

So far this season, the writers of House have spectacularly failed to make any progress towards wrapping up the series, so it seems churlish to complain when a twist of this magnitude lands in our laps.

But the problem with it is, it comes out of nowhere. It's as though David Shore and his team know they've left themselves too little time to conclude the show properly and so throw in a little random peril to add some jeopardy to the final four episodes.

That said, the twist is a decent enough surprise - initial rumours suggested that it would be House who fell ill - and targeting Wilson, possibly the show's most loveable character, is certainly a guaranteed way to engage the viewer.

But will House really conclude by robbing our lead of his only friend? We could be headed for a very grim finale indeed.

What did you make of the shocking House twist? Let us know your thoughts below!